Archive for October, 2005

Many newspapers now have some content online. Often however, the backfile is not available for free, and the cost to download articles can be quite high. Through the library you can access many U.S. and foreign newspapers, including some archival content. For a group of northern New York newspapers the historical content is especially deep. To explore the newspapers available to you, go to our “Articles in Newspapers” page. Within each newspaper collection, there is a way to browse what newspapers are included. All-in-all, many hundreds of newspapers can ow be searched and articles displayed.

Most of the Libraries’ online databases can be accessed from a computer off campus by logging in to our proxy server with your Campus Computer Account. (The proxy server is a nifty piece of equipment that makes it look like you’re working from a computer on campus.) However, no matter how hard we try to keep things easy, some databases work differently than others.

Some of our users have pointed out that accessing CIAO and Earthscape (two databases from Columbia University — one on politics, and one on environmental topics) from off campus is more complicated. To log in to CIAO and Earthscape from the dorm, from home, or from somewhere else off-campus, you have to take one extra step: Create a user account. This can be done in CIAO by clicking on the “Remote Users” link on the left-hand side, and in Earthscape by clicking on the “Work from Home” link under the compass-like-graphic.

However, you must create the user account from on campus so that the database knows which authorized user (SUNY Potsdam) you are affiliated with.

We’re working on finding an easier way for our off-campus users to access these (very useful!) Columbia databases, but until then, if you have any questions please contact the reference desk by calling 267-2485, or by sending an instant message to AIM user PotsdamLibrary.

It was announced today that Harold Pinter, playwright, has won the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. Reuters newswire reports,

British playwright Harold Pinter, a master of sparse dialogue and menacing silences who has been an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, was the surprise winner of the Nobel literature prize on Thursday.

The 75-year-old Londoner, son of a Jewish dressmaker, is one of Britain’s best-known dramatists for plays like “The Birthday Party” and “The Caretaker”, whose mundane dialogue with sinister undercurrents gave rise to the adjective “Pinteresque”.

An intimidating presence with bushy eyebrows and a rich voice, he was described by Swedish Academy head Horace Engdahl, who announced the prize, as “the towering figure” in English drama in the second half of the 20th century.

We have a collection of Pinter’s works in the library; click here to see the list. Also, we have books about his life and work, here.

The Bregman Browsing Collection, in the lobby of Crumb Library, contains many award-winning literary and non-fiction works — if you’re interested in noteworthy new publications, be sure to check the browsing shelves by the couches.

It’s a Sunday evening, and the library’s filling up… and so are the computers. But don’t lose hope! You can still do your work here, if this is where you want or need to be — we have 8 laptop computers available for use in Crumb Library.

You can sign out a laptop at the Circulation Desk, using your SUNYCard. Since wireless access is available in many places in the library — we’ll give you a map of the best spots when you pick up the computer — you can get online wherever you need to be, and you can save to Helios even if you’re sitting on one of the couches on the second floor. For more information, check our Laptop Policies page.

And, if the Reference computers are full, and our laptops are checked out, don’t forget that more computers are available in the Levitt Center in Merritt Hall.